Skip to content
Preview
Image
a trifle

Missing

flash here
as3/flixel source here

23 Comments

  1. madamluna wrote:

    please tell me I can get a happy ending in this, this game is making me so sad :(

    Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 3:04 am | Permalink
  2. Sergio wrote:

    T_T

    Is… is that guy at the top of the screen that I can’t interact with him…?

    Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 11:11 am | Permalink
  3. jonathan wrote:

    Damn i cant find him ? is he there ? is he the “ghost” TELL ME

    Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 3:14 pm | Permalink
  4. One of the things I like about your work is the exposition. You mix minimalist gameplay, graphic design, and plot with a prosaic style that is *not* entirely minimalist. A lot of lo-fi indie games have really simple dialog with vaguely stilted English, which is an (often poignant, personally) throwback to the days of imported Japanese games which were poorly translated for a lack of talent and tersely translated for a lack of cartridge memory. I totally love that style, but I also love what you do with your prose, which is a departure from that, while remaining (what I consider) enigmatic.

    That was probably more than needed to be said about, what, a dozen lines of text? Well, whatever.

    Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 5:43 pm | Permalink
  5. Simon wrote:

    this game sucks

    Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 8:30 pm | Permalink
  6. Alex Higgins wrote:

    Lovely work. Is it possible to reach any sort of ending?

    Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 12:24 am | Permalink
  7. Eltonno wrote:

    Wait….

    what?
    put up flyers evrywhere, talked to everyone… Now what?

    Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 3:32 pm | Permalink
  8. @ELTONNO: Are you sure you talked to everyone? Are you?

    Interesting collision between madness and accepted game mechanisms. The impact was also boosted by the fact it reminded me of the movie Keane.

    Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 8:56 pm | Permalink
  9. Lowan's cuppa oats wrote:

    The music is subtle (really, just sombre tones) that I didn’t notice it at first, then wasn’t sure it was even coming from the game til I turned the sound right up. But it adds to the mood.

    Rico spoke of madness, but the game spoke more to me of a mother’s grief.

    Monday, November 9, 2009 at 3:26 am | Permalink
  10. shane wrote:

    after a while i just directed the player avatar so that it was directed on top of the ghost sprite. i ended the game there. felt right.

    Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 11:48 am | Permalink
  11. Susan Voight wrote:

    Unless there’s someone in the buildings, which doors I can’t seem to open, yes, I’m sure I’ve talked to everyone except the sprite at the top who doesn’t respond.

    If there’s supposed to be a resolution, I’d sure like to know.

    Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 9:37 pm | Permalink
  12. shane wrote:

    i assumed it was like a sad, little digital painting where everything is just as it is. i like the idea of games like that. but maybe i am missing something; i do not know.

    Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 12:15 am | Permalink
  13. Mark wrote:

    My friend and I decided that it goes on forever. The man’s efforts are sad and endless. the “ghost” and that wall you can’t put a flyer on and being able to walk into some buildings from the side are curiosities that give you a false sense of hope. Maybe I just suck at games though.

    Monday, November 16, 2009 at 2:35 pm | Permalink
  14. FungusTrooper wrote:

    Yeah, I love games like this, but I too would like to know if I’m missing something. There’s one wall you can’t flyer, and you can’t talk to the ghost. Nothing seems to happen if you flyer all the other walls and talk to all the people.

    Anything else or is that it? :x

    Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 3:24 pm | Permalink
  15. Liam wrote:

    This game is so sad, it really puts you in a depressed and quiet mood…

    Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 5:25 pm | Permalink
  16. Puzzled wrote:

    Don’t worry, I didn’t get this one either…

    Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 7:30 pm | Permalink
  17. Michelle wrote:

    You know what’s missing? The game! xD I can’t get it to load. D:

    Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 12:02 am | Permalink
  18. really? It’s loading okay for me, on both firefox and safari. Could you try reloading? Could you tell me what your browser/operating system is?

    When you say that it won’t load, you mean that nothing comes up at all, or the loading bar appears and nothing much else happens after, or?

    Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 12:55 am | Permalink
  19. Alex A wrote:

    This game has made me feel sadder about people losing their children than any report I’ve seen or article I’ve read. The whole thing seems so futile, looking for the boy that is. That figure at the top of the page that you can walk through – 1. is that deliberate?, and if so, 2. is a ghost?, and 3. is it the ghost of the boy? He looks incredibly anguished.

    God damn it, man, your games are disturbing.

    Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 4:55 pm | Permalink
  20. Michelle wrote:

    I’m using Google Chrome and I’ve come back today and it still isn’t loading. When I go to the page its just blank, all I see is white, the game doesn’t show at all. Its just strange because all of your other games load fine on my computer.
    But I tried it on Firefox and it worked so maybe its just my Chrome? Who knows. :p

    I think it was worth finally deciding to be smart and try another browser. xD It was… sad.

    Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 9:37 am | Permalink
  21. Oh! I was able to get it to not load in my version of Chrome as well. Happened to another game as well. Both fixed now. Thanks!

    Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 3:13 pm | Permalink
  22. Fredrik wrote:

    My take on it is that only by reaching the acceptance that our child is dead (the ghost), are we able to stop playing and move on with our lives…

    Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 8:27 pm | Permalink
  23. John De wrote:

    Your work has touched me, Stephen.

    Monday, May 13, 2013 at 11:34 am | Permalink

3 Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. “Games” for Grief, Mourning, and Anger on Friday, October 7, 2011 at 3:03 pm

    […] are certainly moving exceptions. Stephen Lavelle’s Missing puts players in the shoes of a parent endlessly searching for a missing child, with no way of […]

  2. Serious games « Game Design Workshop on Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 1:06 am

    […] Missing and Home by increpare (Stephen Lavelle) […]

  3. The Games of 2012: Slave of God | Haruspex Games on Friday, March 29, 2013 at 2:18 pm

    […] difficult to pin down. The hundred or so games on his site are wildy disparate things. Some, like Missing and The Terrible Whiteness of Appalachian Nights, are brief exercises in building atmosphere. […]